PROCEEDINGS STATE AGRICULTURAL CONVENTION 127 



which has been given in agriculture in the past ten years had not been 

 given. Some of the most wonderful work in research has been in the field 

 of agriculture. Talk about detective work, Burns and the other great 

 detectives. Their work is no more clever than the investigations of these 

 research men into the problems relating to agriculture. Do you remember 

 about the time they were called upon to find and convict the criminal 

 causing the spread of wheat rust in this country, which was costing the 

 farmers millions and tens of millions of dollars every year? And how 

 they went at it! They got the habits of that criminal and they studied it 

 in season and out, and they followed him in his dark and devious ways, 

 and finally demonstrated a new fact in the field of science, something that 

 had been known but a short time. The wheat rust forms little spores and 

 these little spores cannot grow on wheat. When the spores are separated 

 and carried off through the air and settle on the grass they die, but if 

 they settle on a barberry bush there they grow. They furnish more 

 spores and then again some of them get back to the wheat. So the easy 

 way to get rid of the wheat rust is to get rid of the barberry. Scientists 

 discovered the criminal, learned his habits, told us how to kill him and 

 get rid of him. Today in Illinois in quite a large area there is a new disease 

 called "take all." It came in from Austria a few years ago. When it 

 strikes a wheat field it does take all. Its spread is surely alarming. The 

 detectives have not yet learned the secrets and history of that criminal, 

 and until they do the persons engaged in raising wheat in that vicinity 

 are tremendously concerned and anxious, and every year will lose con- 

 siderable sums of money. I could give many illustrations of that kind, 

 but I am not going to do it. The thought I want to leave with you is that 

 agricultural investigation and agricultural education are foundation stones 

 in connection with the agricultural progress of our nation, and agriculture 

 is the foundation stone upon which the prosperity of our nation rests. 



At the present time we are suffering world distress. Some of us who 

 have the good fortune to live in Iowa do not appreciate how keen the 

 distress is in some other places where people are actually starving. In- 

 dustry has been cut down; many mills are stilled, and other trades are 

 lagging. Many warehouses which ordinarily should have twenty-five to a 

 hundred thousand dollars' worth of finished product waiting for the market 

 are crammed full, and they have two or three or five hundred thousand 

 dollars' worth of material waiting for market. The manufacturer has bor- 

 rowed from the bank to the limit of credit, and purchasers come not. They 

 have closed their doors and their employes are looking for work and get- 

 ting temporary jobs as best they can. And need I say anything about the 

 condition of agriculture? You surely know it — you know it well. 



In the great field of labor there is distress. Normally there are about a 

 million and a half persons out of employment in this country at this time 

 of the year. At the present time there are from three million to five 

 million out of employment. They are wondering how they are going to 

 pay rent. They are wondering how they are going to feed the little ones 

 this winter. The situation is serious. 



There are a good many remedies. Different remedies would work if they 

 only were applied. I am going to refer to one because I cannot help think- 



